ROME – Two prominent Italian intellectuals announced Monday they were returning their Legion of Honor awards to France to protest that Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi was given the prize despite his government's human rights abuses. Both cited Egypt’s role in the 2016 kidnapping, torture and killing of an Italian doctoral research student in Cairo, as well as the regime's other human rights violations. The French ambassador to Italy, Christian Masset, said he respected Augias and defended the government's human rights record. “France is on the front lines for human rights and makes no compromises,” he tweeted after Augias returned his prize. “It would be ineffective in terms of human rights and counterproductive in the fight against terrorism — that’s why I won’t do that,” he said.

The investigation against another member of Egypt’s national security force was shelved due to insufficient proof, he told lawmakers. As late as last month, Egyptian prosecutors were insisting that Regeni's killer remains unknown. The torture marks resembled those resulting from widespread torture in Egyptian facilities, activists and rights groups have said. The Italian prosecutors said several witnesses, whom they identified before the parliamentary panel only by code names to protect their security, were invaluable. The Egyptian suspects can supply their own statements or other information in the next few weeks.